These pools are here because a layer of clay, which lies on top of the rocks, is holding the water. Look for this clay at the road edges. Across the main road, sandstones and shales, the underlying rocks, rise higher and are exposed in the Edgehills Sand Quarry. The layer of clay extends through Cinderford.
How did it get here?
Probably it was formed during the Ice Age by freezing and thawing processes breaking up surface rock, the sediment settling as clay in lakes at the edge of the ice cap covering the Dean at the time.
Do you notice the steep valley down into Mitcheldean?
This could well have been carved by rushing torrents from the ice-bound lakes as they thawed. Now just these pools are left.
Across the road also are other pools, made by man as reservoirs for the iron mines that used to be here. The soils here are acid, with occasional pockets of limey soil where limestone was dumped from nearby workings.
This means that there is a very interesting variation of plant and animal life here, and why it has been nominated as a Nature Reserve, managed by the Gloucestershire Trust for Nature Conservation.
Please do not pick any plants.
Among the commonest plants are sedges and rushes – look out for different kinds of these.
___
This text was taken from ‘The Wilderness Forest Trail' published by the Forestry Commission, 1974?
___
Stop 2 – The Old Tramroad
You are standing on the embankment of a tramroad which was used to carry iron ore from the mines at Wigpool (at stop 19 on this trail) to the main railway at Cinderford.
Horse-worked tramroads with cast iron rails were first introduced in 1800 in the Dean to improve the transport of industrial products.
Despite initial opposition from the Crown Officers, since it required considerable land, three tramroads were established between 1809 and 1912.
The area to the left of the track supported a crop of Norway spruce which was planted in 1921. This has been harvested and the area replanted with a further crop of conifer trees, namely Corsican Pine, to maintain the productive efficiency of the land.
This text was taken from ‘The Wilderness Forest Trail' published by the Forestry Commission, 1974?
